Latest Happenings with Toronto FC--------by Section 112 Blizzard
Dec 1st 2006

With the arrival of Greg Sutton from the Montréal Impact announced, Bob Gansler should be announced as Mo Johnston's assistant in the next couple of days.

Back when he was appointed in late August, Mo Johnston claimed that "You are going to be blown away by who it is" when discussing his assistant who he said could not be named at that point for contractual reasons. I suspect some people will see it as a bit of an anticlimax after that sort of billing but the appointment of the USA's national team coach at Italia 90 and Mo's boss as a player at the Kansas City Wizards when he won the 2000 MLS Cup is nevertheless a good sign in that Gansler should provide the experience that Mo Johnston still lacks as a coach.

Nate Jaqua is exploring his European options
One of the riskier aspects of the expansion draft selections was the decision to take Nate Jaqua from the Chicago Fire, a player who will be out of contract with MLS in December and was rumoured to be thinking of going to Europe. Although Jaqua is highly rated as just the sort of targetman style of striker who would thrive from the steady stream of crosses expected to be provided by Jim Brennan and Ronnie O'Brien, there was clearly always a risk that at best only some additional allocation money would ever be derived from his selection.

Mo Johnston has done a good job so far of assembling a solid defence and midfield but the fortunes of the team in its first season and Mo's future in professional soccer as a coach may well hinge on what happens next up front in terms of player acquisitions between now and the start of the season given Jaqua's likely departure and the fact that Edson Buddle has been injury prone throughout his six years in MLS and is coming off a disappointing season with the New York Red Bulls.

With a bit of luck one of the two Canadian forwards invited to the MLS player combine for graduating NCAA players, which immediately precedes the Superdraft in January, Rich Asante and Riley O'Neill will, if picked with Toronto's first selection, go on to be the next Rob Friend or Olivier Occean two Canadian national team players who have used the NCAA as a springboard to successful pro careers in Europe in recent years. It would be unwise to count on a player with no previous pro level experience to score the goals this summer, however.

In the absence of a blockbuster trade with the Houston Dynamo for Dwayne de Rosario, chances are that a high salary senior international player will provide the answer to this conundrum. It was certainly good news to hearing from Toronto FC's business manager, Paul Beirne, on The FAN 590's Soccer Show this week that the Reds will consider using the Designated Player Rule if thereis an opportunity to sign a player who will help the team win, as opposed to using it on the sort of flash in the pan Beckham or Ronaldo style gimmick to sell tickets that has been the subject of recent media speculation with regards to the LA Galaxy and New York Red Bulls.

This move may have been prompted by Chivas USA's trade of their designated player spot to the New York Red Bulls for Honduran star Amado Guevara and a draft pick. Chivas had been expected to be one of the teams who would be in the market for a second designated player roster spot so it is quite possible that only more deal will be made now in this regard, probably involving a transaction between two AEG operated teams so that the LA Galaxy can accommodate both David Beckham (or whoever) and Landon Donovan in 2008 and 2009. If there is limited potential trade value associated with the designatged roster spot it makes sense for Toronto to consider using a designated player spot themselves on a forward who would cost slightly over the $US 450,000 maximum salary.

Such a salary would be competitive with the Championship in England and most top-tiered clubs in smaller European nations so spending slighly more money on a striker like this could make a big difference in terms of the quality of player that could be signed.

Scouting Trip to Europe
Mo Johnston is heading off to Europe on a scouting trip next week. Although Canadian players are rumoured to be a key priority in this regard it is difficult to see what can happen prior to the summer transfer window given that midfielder Patrice Bernier, who is rumoured to have recently turned down a $400,000 a year deal with Start Kristiansand, is the only obvious out of contract national team player on the market right now and his season with Tromsø in Norway has already ended. Chances are that the trip is aimed primarily at finding a couple of foreign players when the transfer window opens in January and that the scouting of Canadian players will be more for future reference.

The bottom line is that Mo Johnston has got off to a promising start but his next move in terms of signing starting forwards will be the critical factor in determining just how far Toronto FC can go in their first season in MLS.

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